Applying Udder Cream and the End of Civilisation

Sarah’s brother was at home in Madrid this week when Spain underwent a blackout, alone in the dark with the only the thing in his house still working, his old radio. This week too saw the start of the great switch-off of analogue phones; and just look at the chaos caused by a cyber-attack at Marks and Spencer in the last few days. So, Sarah’s question is this, as we fall under the thrall of ever updating technology, are we going unwittingly back to the dark ages? Meanwhile, Peter is as reluctant as the average vampire to be seen in the sun, so why, every summer, does he turn the colour of an expensive riding saddle? Tune in for a remarkable, death-defying story of being stranded in Mogadishu and having to flee across the desert to escape. And sunburn. On our reading and watch list this week: · The Stand – Stephen King· Black Hawk Down· Leave The World Behind – Rumaan Alam To get in touch, email: [email protected], you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on Whatsapp – on 07796 657512, start your message with the word ‘alas’. Take our show survey at:https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9 Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter HitchensProducer: Philip WildingEditor: Chelsey MooreProduction Manager: Vittoria CecchiniExecutive Producer: Jamie East A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's the Big Idea?

Finally, Sarah Vine (once memorably described as being ‘like and loathed in equal measure, divisive, but never indecisive’) and Peter Hitchens (a man whose writing a critic was called to compare to a Guardsman’s boot: ‘as highly polished and potentially lethal’) meet once a week to look at the world and mutter, alas…

Acclaimed columnist and journalist Sarah Vine and best-selling author and broadcaster Peter Hitchens discuss and dissect social, economic, and pop cultural flotsam and jetsam that have risen out of the dark waters of that week’s news.

Taking one big idea each episode and pulling it apart with élan, imagine Vine and Hitchens respective columns brought to life and then skewered, scoffed at, debated, and given the full weight of Vine and Hitchens impenetrable gaze. Though an accord might not always be reached, it’s the journey that matters.

Whether it’s the tech bros gone rogue – Meta tearing up its own rule book on fact checking, Musk attempting to influence governmental policy, or the knotty subject on society’s ever-increasing reliance on anti-depressants to treat what might just be the modern malaise and not depression at all. Or, evil, nature or nurture? Does evil actually exist or is it an idea that hangs over us, or do we just sometime embody it and the actions themselves are evil, not the individual?

All this and more are to be pored over, one towering topic each week discussed with humour, insight, and real understanding.

Take part in our listener survey here:
https://ex-plorsurvey.com/survey/selfserve/550/g517/250305?list=9#?

To get in touch email [email protected], you can leave a comment on Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp - on 07796 657512 start your message with the word 'alas'

Presenters: Sarah Vine & Peter Hitchens
Producer: Phillip Wilding
Editor: Chelsey Moore
Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini
Executive Producer: Jamie East

A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular

• No. of episodes: 12
• Latest episode: 2025-05-07
• News News Commentary Politics

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